Sleek, soft-spoken Chancellor Franz von Papen, whose most violent gesture is frequently to take off and twirl his eyeglasses, thunderstruck the world last week by a series of provocative acts, all performed with utmost urbanity:
Blow at Britain. Quietly upping a long list of German tariff schedules by decree. Chancellor von Papen choked off Great Britain's chief exports to the Reich, notably textiles, the duty on which he raised 300%.
Within 20 hours the British Government retaliated by decreeing similar prohibitive duties which choked off German exports of gloves and sausages to Britain....